Saturday, February 18, 2012

INTRO: Maryland Juice had a feeling that a vote against marriage equality from freshman Delegate Sam Arora would not go over well with his constituents, friends, colleagues, former classmates, etc.I was right.

Sources report that right around 4:20 pm yesterday, Sam Arora's legislative aide quit. 10 minutes later, the historic House vote on marriage equality began. When the dust had settled, Arora had voted against the legislation.

Within minutes of the passage of marriage equality in the Maryland House, the Internet exploded with activity to defeat Sam Arora in 2014. The outburst of anger is attributable to the fact that Arora was a former ally on the issue and many of his supporters, donors and volunteers feel betrayed. The anti-Arora activities sprouting up range from hilarious to sad to downright aggressive.Instinct Magazine summarized the explosion well:

JUICE #1: AMERICAblog Commentary - Regardless of what Arora is hiding in his political closet, his career in Democratic politics is over. A number of high-level Democratic political operatives in DC are talking this evening about the best way, legally and politically, to move ahead with ending Arora's career, starting with his next election. We've taken down bigger bigots than a Maryland House delegate. If he thinks he's going to survive in Democratic politics as a known homophobe, and someone who poked his finger in the eyes of Bill Clinton, Terry McAuliffe and Maryland Governor O'Malley... well, good luck with that.

More from Democratic political consultant Karl Frisch, a former friend and supporter of Arora's:

"Discrimination against gay and lesbian couples is one step closer to being over in Maryland. The same can be said for Sam's career in politics."

"I've already been asked by several high level national and Maryland Democratic operatives to join a call tonight to discuss strategies for sending Sam packing. We -- and by we, I mean many people who helped elect our former equality supporting friend -- will do whatever it takes. Nothing will be left off the table."

Enjoy the next few years in politics, Sam. They'll be your last in elected office.

JUICE #2: RootsCamp - Each year, progressive activists come together to teach each other lessons from their organizing and activism experiences. The weekend of workshops is called RootsCamp, and this year the effort is sponsored by progressive groups and companies ranging from AFL-CIO, NARAL, Human Rights Campaign, NGP VAN, Google, etc.

Notably, the conference agenda is established by the participants at the conference, not beforehand. Amazingly, this morning they chose to create a work-session on Maryland Delegate Sam Arora. Not only that, they booked the session to the largest room available. A Twitter user provided the following image:

MD Juice News Feed:

This blog predates my campaign committee and is substantially unrelated to electioneering, but just in case, you can consider certain posts "By Authority: Friends of David Moon. Chair: Marlana Valdez. Treasurer: Usman Ahmed."